I bought a pair of jeans from a sidewalk vendor yesterday. They were cheap, and they fit quite well. As I was taking the tags off, I noticed that instead of listing the fabric used, this is what the tag says….

mainly mum (25%) Korean, height, kind, stupidly believe, people, full of love.

Dad (5%) korean, height 170cm, sharp, sensitivity

#1 brother (15%) nine year older, married. sensitivity and sharp.

#2 brother (15%) six years older. Kinda lazy works with me.

#3 brother (15%) eleven years younger. student, loves with me. oldest

sister unlaw (10%) works with me. oldest brother’s wife.

my wife (25%) height 173 cm, American, model

we are happy

Yup, so instead of your usual denim or cotton blends, my pants have 110% of a Korean family in them. I love this country.

I don’t usually write about politics. I think that’s because I’m not usually interested in politics, nor do I have anything relevant to say. However, when you’re eating in the cafeteria and all eyes are glued to the TV, so you look to see what’s going on, and you see a swarm of men in suits and ties brawling ~ you take some notice.

Yesterday, South Korea’s president was impeached. From what I can tell, the Western Media and the Korean Public tend to disagree on exactly what went down. All I know is that Korean TV stations yesterday were full of footage that showed men in suits behaving like NHL players at a WWF Wrestling workshop. It was bizarre.

Some of my Korean friends attended impromptu candlelight rallies to protest the impeachment. About 70% of Koreans are opposed to the impeachment (according to German news sources), and everyone I’ve talked to sees it as an attempt for the opposition party to seize power…so they can go ahead and mis-use the money that President Roh was accused of mis-using. And that, my friends, is why I don’t like politics.

Now that I’ve started to settle into the groove of teaching here, I’ve begun to fill up some of my free time. For starters, this afternoon I’ll be starting pottery classes here on campus. I loved my pottery classes in Daejeon, and am looking forward to taking it up again ~ I can make myself some plates and bowls!

I’ve also arranged for a Korean tutor. His name in JooYung. He makes me laugh, and he’s cute too … so I think that will make studying Korean much easier 🙂

And finally, I was asked to write an ariticle for the campus English newsletter / magazine. I’m not sure what it is. Anyway, I took some of my free time yesterday to write it. I came to realize that with the exception of my occasional blurbs here on my Blog, I really haven’t written much for over a year! That has got to change ~ I can feel my brain turning to oatmeal as the days go by. If that continues, soon the only thing you will see when you read my blogs is :

ugh. today. good. ugh.

Which, for all my caveman or neanderthal friends, that’s fine. For the rest of you whos mental lexicon exceeds 12 words, it might get a bit tedious.